We had our hospital tour tonight (since we delivered Baby 1 in Mississippi), and here is the breakdown:
The good: Best Neo-Natal unit around. Lots of quality doctors and one of the highest VBAC (Vaginal Birth After C-section) rates you can find (a positive since I want to avoid another c-section if at all possible).
Mississippi as a state has one of the highest c-section rates in the whole country.
The bad: In Mississippi, we were STRONGLY encouraged to leave the baby in the nursery during the night with the staff bringing the baby in for feedings so that we could get some good sleep and recover more quickly. At this hospital, that is frowned upon and it sounds like they want the baby with us 24-7. As a first time mom, I thought I would want the baby in our room at night, but after realizing how exhausted we were from the laboring and c-section, we ended up loving the nursery babysitting at night. Also, in Mississippi, a lactation consultant automatically made rounds to all the new patients to offer assistance. Our new hospital is so big and has so many patients that the consultants only come if requested, and even then you are placed on their "schedule", which means I am unclear how soon one would show up if you needed them.
The ugly: The postpartum room we will be staying in for 2 or 3 days is literally half the size of the room we had in Mississippi and nowhere near being updated anytime in the last 15 years. Tom and I couldn't even imagine having more than 1 or two visitors in there without being overwhelmed.
In the end, the good definitely outweighs the bad, so we'll have to see how this experience stacks up against P's birth. Laughed internally at two "new" dads on our tour who were frantically scribbling notes the ENTIRE time.
Our hospital is nice, but our tour guide last night was worthless. :) She actually said a bunch of things that directly contradicted what our childbirth instructor (at the same hospital!) said.
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